Origins & Legacy of Art Jewellery in South Africa

Timed Online Auction, 6 - 22 October 2025

Origins
About the Session

Origins, explores the emergence of South African fine metal artistry through pioneering immigrant goldsmiths and jewellers such as Erich Frey, Peter Cullman, Margaret Richardson, Elsa Wongchowsky, Tessa Fleischer and Birger Haglund.  Many were drawn to South Africa after the Second World War, seeking opportunities to establish workshops. Their training in European institutions, such as Pforzheim, equipped them with modernist principles and technical expertise.  Their works embodied modernist aesthetics while adapting to local contexts. They experimented with form, texture, and materiality, linking jewellery to broader artistic movements. 

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ZAR 3 604
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  • Peter Cullman; Peter Cullman cube ring
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ZAR 3 500 - 4 500
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ZAR 3 604
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About this Item

Peter Cullman
Germany-South Africa 1941-
Peter Cullman cube ring
centred a solid cube with five assumed yellow gold spheres to the centre of each side, with the larger at the top, on a flat tapering European band, sterling silver, stamped 'Cullman', size J 1/2 total weight 11.20 grams

Notes

Peter Cullman was born in Berlin and completed his goldsmiths apprentice in Idar, Germany.

After spending time in Israel, he emigrated to South Africa in 1963. He played a vital role as a founder and leader in the establishment of the Goldsmiths Guild of South Africa in Johannesburg. The Guild aimed to elevate jewellery as an art form through standardised maker's marks, hallmarking and organizing exhibitions of original and high-quality local design. The guild was dissolved in the late 1970s due to political turmoil and emigration. Cullman himself relocated to Toronto, continuing his craft abroad.

His modernist design style has received international recognition.

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